Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle bumper structure including a pedestrian collision detection sensor.
Related Art
In a vehicle bumper structure including a pedestrian collision detection sensor described in International Publication (WO) No. 2012/113362, a pressure tube is provided between bumper reinforcement and an absorber, and the pressure tube extends along a vehicle width direction. In the event of a collision between the vehicle and a colliding body, the pressure tube is pressed and squashed by the absorber and the bumper reinforcement, and a pressure sensor outputs a signal according to a change in pressure in the pressure tube. An ECU thereby determines whether or not the colliding body colliding with the vehicle is a pedestrian. Note that Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2007-069707, WO 2011/128971, and JP-A No. 2011-245910 also describe vehicle bumper structures including a pedestrian collision detection sensor.
A pedestrian colliding with the vehicle tends to fall onto a front hood. Thus, when the ECU determines that the colliding body is a pedestrian, the front hood is lifted up by a pop-up hood device to protect the pedestrian. It is therefore preferable to set a detection range of the pedestrian collision detection sensor in the vehicle width direction to a maximum width of the front hood, for example, from the perspective of pedestrian protection.
However, if both vehicle width direction end sections of the bumper reinforcement are extended further toward the vehicle width direction outer sides than the maximum width of the front hood in order to set the detection range of the pedestrian collision detection sensor as described above, then a placement space of the bumper reinforcement would increase. In damageability testing (light front-end collision testing), for example, there would accordingly be a possibility of interference between the vehicle width direction outer end portions of the bumper reinforcement and peripheral components disposed at the vehicle rear side of the bumper reinforcement.